I love reading Phil Thurrott’s SuperSite Blog.
He’s a great journalist and is also maybe the most balanced IT writer I have read. He may be involved in a lot of Microsoft work but if they do something stupid, he says so. If Apple does something great, he acknowledges it.
What I like best about his blog is the way he blasts the hopeless hacks who try to cover technology news. Sometimes he can be a little arrogant but for the most part he is great to read.
Recently he did a great post highlighting the not-so-subliminal bias of Wired Blog by turning this post:
Zune Eats Creative’s Meager Lunch, Grabbing 4 Percent of MP3 Player Market
Microsoft’s Zune picked up a percentage point in the MP3 player market, bringing its share to a whopping four percent, with two million units sold. Microsoft has said from the start that it will stick with the Zune for as long as it takes for the player to gain traction, and it looks like that’s starting to happen.
Apple’s share of the MP3 player market share dropped a single point to 71 percent, according to the NPD Group’s study, but its lead is still monstrous. The bigger loser between Q1 2007 and Q1 2008 was Creative, which saw its share halved to two percent.
into this:
Apple Eats Packard-Bell’s Meager Lunch, Grabbing 4 Percent of PC Market
Apple’s Mac picked up a percentage point in the PC player market, bringing its share to a whopping four percent, with two million units sold. Apple has said from the start that it will stick with the Mac for as long as it takes for the platform to gain traction, and it looks like that’s starting to happen.
Microsoft’s share of the desktop OS market share dropped a single point to 91 percent, according to the NPD Group’s study, but its lead is still monstrous. The bigger loser between Q1 2007 and Q1 2008 was Packard-Bell, which saw its share halved to two percent.
This kind of reporting annoys me regularly, especially the way that whenever Apple does something it must be some amazing innovative new breakthrough. Macbooks getting faster Intel processors? Wow! Why didn’t Toshiba think of that??
I think the Zune does have promise if Microsoft picks up its game a little and releases it overseas. I hardly see how it is doing horribly, in the space of two years Microsoft has grabbed 4% marketshare and overtook the number two competitor (Creative).
Gee the iPod sold 370, 000 units in its first year, the Zune sold one million. Yea yea I know there are other factors involved, but back in 2002 people certainly weren’t saying, oh the iPod is a failure for barely moving half a million units.
What we won’t see is the spike the iPod had in its 3rd year when it jumped from around 600 000 units a quarter to 2, 4, 6 then 14 million units sold. However I can see the Zune will slowly gain ground over the next couple years.
